van syckle



c. E. VAN SYCKLE. SCRAPER ATTACHMENT FOR UNLOADER BUCKETS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 17. 1920.

Patented Oct. 25, 1921. T

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

C. E. VAN SYCKLE. SCRAPER ATTACHMENT FOR UNLOADER BUCKETS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY1?, 1920- 7 1,394,699, Patented Oct. 25, 1921 3SHEETS-SHEET 2.

C. E. VAN SYCKLE. SCRAPER ATTACHMENT FOR UNLOADER BUCKETS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 17,1920.

Patented Oct. 25, 1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3- titti? CECIL E. VAN SYCKLE, OF LAKEWOOD, OHIO,ASSIGNOR T 0 THE WELLMAN-SEAVER- SCRAPER ATTACHMENT FOR UNLOADER-BUCKETS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 25, 1921.

Application filed May 17, 1920. Serial No. 381,844.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Cnon. E. VAN SYonLE,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Lakewood, in the county ofCuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and usefulImprovement in Scraper Attachments for Unloader-Bm-kets, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to a scraper attachment for the buckets ofboatunloaders, and has for its chief object to provide a device whichcan be attached to the bucket and which can be utilized to effectivelycollect by scraping into piles the ore or-other material which remainsin the boat after the bucket without the attachment has removed all ofthe cargo that it can economically handle.

A further object is to provide a scraper which can be extended so as togive it the proper reach and enable the material under any part of thodecking between hatches or along the sides of the boat to be reached,and which can be collapsed or. reduced in its over-all dimensions sothat it can be passed through the hatch openings. In another respect theinvention aims to provide means by which the scraper can be extended orcollapsed by the movement of the bucket jaws thus doing away with'thenecessity of workmen in the hatch either to scrape up the material byhand as heretofore required, or to extend and collapse the scraper.

The invention may be briefly summarized as consisting in certain noveldetails of con struction, and combinations and arrangements of partswhich will be described in the spe ification and set forth in theappended claims.

Though the invention is susceptible of numerous modifications, andthough it can be applied to any of the standard buckets, and may beactuated, 71.6., extended and collapsed by different instrumentalities,in the drawings 1 have shown the preferred form of the scraper, and haveshown it applied to buckets of two diflerent types. In the drawings,Figure 1 is a side view of a bucket with the scraper attached to one ofthe jaws, the bucket here shown being of the type known as thetelescoping bucket, 6., of the type wherein both jaws can be movedsimultaneously in the same direction along the bottom of the leg of theunloader; Fig. 2

13 21 bottom view of the same, omitting much of the bucket operatlngmechanism; Fig. 3 IS a conventional or diagrammatic representation ofthe bucket of Fig. 1, with the" scraper atta hed to one of the jaws,with the scraper in its collapsed or folded position; F g. 4 a bottomview of the same; Fig. 5 1s a v1ew similar to Fig. 3, with the aws fullytelescoped or moved laterally the maximum amount from the center of theunloader leg, and showing the scraper unfolded or extended ready foruse; Fig. 6 is a bottom view of Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a front or face viewof the attachment with parts in the unfolded or extended position, theattachment being applied to a bucket jaw; F g. 8 1s a top plan view ofthe same; Fig. 9 1s a sectional view substantially along the line 99 ofFig. 7, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows; and Fig. 10 isa view showing the invention applied to a bucket of the nontelescopingtype, that is to say, to a bucket of the type having jaws which swingrelative to each other only, and are not capable of simultaneousmovement in one dlrection or the other with reference to the axis of theleg of the unloader.

Large boats carrying ore, coal, and like materials are generallyunloaded by a machine known as the Hulett unloader which removes thematerial from the boat by a grab bucket, generally of many tonscapacity, the bucket being supported at the bottom of a vertical legwhich at its upper end is connected to a walking beam supported on atrolley movable back and forth at right angles to the face of the dockon a bridge which travels on a runway lengthwise of the dock and of theboat to be unloaded.

In operating this unloader the bucket and the lower part of the leg arelowered into the hatch, with the bucket jaws open. Then the operator whois stationed in the leg causes the bucket jaws to be closed so as topick up a load, and then the leg is elevated by rocking the walkingbeam. This is followed by a backward movement of the carriage whichcarries the walking beam, leg and bucket back over the dock, and thenthe bucket jaws are opened so as to allow the material to fall into ahopper or chute or other receiving member which delivers the materialinto conveyers such as cars, or onto a storage pile. These operationsare repeat ed until the hatch has been emptied of all but a small amountwhich cannot be removed economically by the bucket until it has beenscraped up into piles. To do this scraping, it has heretofore beencustomary ror workmen to enter the hatch of the boat and shovel up theremaining material into piles, after which the bucket is again operatedto re move this material also.

The scraping of this material into piles by hand labor is expensive andtime consuming, and is not altogether economical for these reasons andfor the additionalf reason that the unloader is usually idle until thismaterial in the bottom of the hatch being emptied, has been scraped uponto a pile as just stated.

Different kinds of grab buckets are employed with unloaders of thistype, but one which has proven to be most satisfactory is known as thetelescoping bucket, due to the fact that it is not only constructed sothat the bucket jaws may swing relative to each other to pick up ordischarge a load, but to the fact that the jaws may be movedsimultaneously in a lateral direction, the object of this feature beingto enable the jaws to reach material located not only directly beneaththe hatch opening, but laterally thereof as far as the sides of thehatch. Buckets of this type have been used for a long period, and aregenerally of the type substantially as shown in the patent granted inthe name of G. H. Hulett, November 18, 1902, No. 713,987.

To accomplish the objects heretofore stated, e. to eliminate hand laborheretofore utilized in scraping up into piles the material in the bottomof the hatch, I propose to utilize the device constituting the subjectmatter of the present invention, which device is in the nature of ascraper which is attached to one of the bucket jaws and is operated bythe movement thereof.

In order that a scraper suitable for this purpose may have a sufficientreach to scrape up material located under the decking, it is necessary,or at least desirable, that the scraper be collapsible and extensible sothat it can be attached to a bucket jaw outside of the boat and loweredthrough the hatch opening, and may then be extended.

To accomplish these objects, scrapers which may be extended andcollapsed in different ways may be provided, though I prefer aconstruction wherein the scraper is composed of hinged sections whichcan be folded and unfolded by a swinging motion. This embodiment of theinvention is shown in the drawings wherein the scraper is composed of acentral or main section 10, preferably somewhat longer than the face ofthe bucket. as illustrated in Fig. 7, and swinging end sections 11connected to the ends of the middle section 10 by hinges 12. The

mechanism or means for attaching the scraperto a bucket jaw may dependat least to some extent on the type and size of bucket, but with bucketsof ordinary construction the attaching means preferably consists of apair of castings or forgings 12 which are secured to the inner side ofthe central section 10 and are provided with slots which are adapted toreceive the lower or digging edge of the open jaw which is designated 13(see particularly Fig. 9) and the attaching means further comprises astrap 14.- adapted to be hooked over the upper or outer edge of the jaw,as shown at 15, and connected by links or equivalent means 16 to the topof the middle section 10 of the scraper. As shown in Fig. 7, and otherfigures, when the scraper is attached it extends across the face of theopen jaw of the bucket, and when the scraper is extended, the wings orend sections 1111 extend laterally outward a considerable distancebeyond the jaw.

In order that a scraper of this kind may have maximum efiiciency, it isvery desirable that it be extended and collapsed by the movement of thejaws of the bucket. This I find can be done effectively both withbuckets of the telescoping and non-telescoping types, and though it canbe accomplished in different ways which differ in the specificarrangement and manner of connecting and reeving operating ropes I haveshown simply one embodiment of this part of my invention for thetelescoping bucket, and one for the non-telescoping bucket, the formerbeing illustrated in Figs. 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and the latter in Fig. 10.In Fig. 1 the lower part only of the leg which supports the bucket isshown at 17, and though I have shown the jaws 13 and part of the leg 17in some detail I have not attempted to show the jaw operating mechanismeither for swinging the jaws relative to each otherto open or closethem, or to move them laterally simultaneously in either direction,since the present invention does not reside in the details ofconstruction, of the jaws of the bucket, or the manner in which the jawsare swung relative to each other or given the socalled telescopingmovement, and it will be understood without further illustration anddiscussion of this part of the mechanism, particularly in view of theHulett patent already referred to, that suit-able means will be providedto open and close the jaws and to give them the telescoping movement,that is to say, to move them laterally simultaneously with reference tothe center of the leg 17.

Reverting again to the mechanism for extending or collapsing thescraper, it will be seen that I utilize for this purpose four ropes twoon each side of the bucket. Two of thse ropes, designated 18, andlocated respectively on opposite sides of the bucket are connected eachto one of the wings or end sections 11, as shown 19 and from the latterextends past the jaw to which the scraper isattached, to and around across pin 19 of the opposite jaw, and then is anchored at 20 to thelower part of the leg 17. The other two ropes 21 which are likewiselocated on opposite sides of the bucket, have their inner end anchoredat 22 to the lower part of the leg 17, and extend direct to the scraper,their outer ends being connected at 23 to a pair of segment shapedsheaves 2a which are attached to the inner top portions of the two endsections or wings 11 of the scraper. in the ropes 21, coil springs 25are provided, the purpose of which will be subsequently explained.

In Figs. 3 and 4 I have shown the relative position of the parts whenthe end sections of the scraper are folded inwardly at right angles tothe main or middle section. The parts occupy these relative positionswhen the scraper is attached to the bucket and is inserted through thehatch opening. To extend the scraper the operator has only to impart thetelescoping movement to the jaws, or to move them simultaneously in alateral direction away from the center line of the leg to the positionsindicated in Figs. 5 and 6. Inasmuch as this movement of the jawscreates a direct pull on the ropes 21,

and since the outer ends of these ropes pass around the segment sheaves24, which sheaves occupy the position shown in Fig. 4 before thetelescoping movement of the jaws, it is obvious that the pull on theseropes 21 during the telescoping movement will rotate the two endsections to the position shown in Figs. 5 and 6, and shown by full linesin Fig. 2, the coil springs 25 then stretching a predetermined amount.During this movement of the jaws the ropes 18 do not prevent thisswinging movement of the sections 11 of the scraper since these ropesare looped around the cross pin 19 of the opposite bucket jaw, andtherefore the lower part of the cable is moved forwardly substantiallytwice the distance that the cross pin 19 moves.

In a similar manner, when the two bucket jaws are moved simultaneouslyin the opposite direction, the ropes 18 pull the end section 11 of thescraper back to the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, andby fulllines in Figs. 3 and 1, the effective length of the cables 21 then beingshortened by reduction in the tension and length of the coil springs 25.

If a non-telescoping bucket iseinployed, the parts of the scraper can bemoved from collapsed to extended position, or vice versa, by connectingthe ropes as shown in Fig. 10. in which event the ropes are madeefi'ective to extend or collapse the scraper by precisely as in thefirst instance.

swinging the jaws relative to each other a predetermined amount. Toextend the end sections of the scraper, two ropes 26 will be employed,these ropes being anchored at 27 on opposite sides of the leg andextending about and bein connected to the sheaves These ropes areprovided with coil springs 28 similar to the springs 25 of thearrangement first described. To fold the end sections of the scraperinwardly, two ropes 29 are utilized, these ropes having their outer endsconnectet at 30 to the sections 11 of the scraper, and after beinglooped about a cros pin 81 of the jaw to which the scraper is attached,extending upwardly to and being anchored at 32 to the leg.

When the scraper is applied to the jaws the bucket will not be openedits maximum amount. but the jaws will be in substantially the positionshown by .full lines in Fig. 10. Then to extend the scraper the jawswill be swung relative to each other to the position hown by dottedlines. When this movement of the jaws takes place the relative movementbetween the cross pin 31 of the bucket and the relatively fixedanchorage points 82, allows the ropes 29 to pay out, so to speak, so asto permit the tension of the springs 28 to pull the sections 11 of thescraper to extended position. and when the bucket jaws are swung fromthe dotted lint position to the full line position of Fig. 10, the pullexerted through the cables 29 by the virtual shortening of these ropesthrough the action of the cross pin 31 of the jaw pulls the end sections11 of the scraper inwardly alongside the jaw. and in o doing. stretchesthe spring 28. giving it the tension required to extend the scraper whenthe jaws are opened as previously explained.

In the use of my invention. the scraper will be applied outside of theboat, and when applied, the jaws will be at least-partially open and thescraper will be folded or collapsed 50 that the bucket and scraper canbe lowered through the hatch opening. Then the operator, whose stationis in the upright portion of the leg 17, causes the scraper to beextended either by imparting the telescoping movement to the jaws, if atelescoping bucket is employed, or by swinging the jaws relatively asdescribed in connection with Fig. 10 if a non-telescoping bucket isemployed; then with the scraper operating directly on the bottom of thehatch the operator by moving the carriage of the unloader back andforth, will shift the unloader leg and bucket and cause the scraper toscrape up the material into a pile.

After the material in the bottom of the hatch has been scraped up into apile, the scraper will be collapsed, and then the bucket will be liftedout of the hatch, whereupon the scraper will be removed by an attendanton the outside, and the bucket will then be lowered into the hatch, andthe material thus craped up will be removed so that all the materialwhich was previously in the hatch is removed by the bucket withoutrequiring any hand labor in the hatch either to scrape up the materialor to adjust the scraper.

It has been found in practice that by the present invention aconsiderable saving in time and labor is effected in removing all thematerial from the different hatches of the boat so that both the timeand cost of unloading the boat are decreased and the eliiciency of theunloader as a whole is enhanced.

l'laving described my invention, I claim:

It. In combination with a bucket of a boat unloader, a scraper adaptedto be applied to one of the jaws of the bucket for scraping into a pilethe niaterialat the bottom of a boat hatch by shifting the bucket withthe scraper. attached thereto, and means for attaching the scraper toone at the bucket jaws.

in combination with a grab bucket of a boat unloader, a scraper adaptedto be secured to the bucket, said scraper being composed of relativelymovable sections which enable the scraper to be extended or to becollapsed so that when applied to the bucket it can be passed through ahatch o iiening; which is narrower than the length of the scraper whenextended.

3. In combination with an unloading and conveying bucket, a scraperattachment comprising a scraper composed of hinged tions adapted to beswung relatively so as to extend or collapse the scraper, and means forattaching the scraper to the bucket.

i. In combination with an unloading and conveying bucket having jawsadapted to be opened and closed, a scraper composed of relativelymovable parts and having means by which it may be attached to thebucket, and means operated by movement of the jaws for relativelyshitting said part:

of the scraper to increase or decrease the span or reach of the same.

In combination with an unlo ding and c-OD. 'ing bucket, a scraperattachment comprising scraper members adapted "to be applied to thebucket, said members being relatively movable to extend and collapse thesci-per, and means connected to movable members of the scraper forextending or collapsi the letter when the jaws are given a predeterminedmovement.

(3. In combination with a bucket of a boat unloader, a scraper adaptedto be applied to one ot the jai of the bucket and C0111- prisin g middlesection and end sections ada'ited to be folded inwardly alongside thejaw to collapse the scraper and to be swung outwardly into substantialalinement \"ith the middle section to extend the 4. In combination witha bucket of a boat unloader, a scraper adapted to be applied to one ofthe jaws of the bucket and comprising a middle section and end sectionsadapted to be folded inwardly alongside the jaw to collapse the scraperand to be swung outumrdly into substantial alinement with the middlesection to extend the scraper, and means for swinging the end sectionsof the scraper.

8. In combination with a bucket of a boat unloader, a scraper adapted tobe applied to one of the jaws ot the bucket and COI11- prising a middlesection and end sections adapted to be tolded'inwardly alongside the jawto collapse the scraper and to be swung outwardly into substantialalinement with the middle sect-ion to extend the scraper,

and means connected to the end sections of V the scraper for swingingthem relative to the middle section when a predetermined movement isimparted to the jaws of the bucket.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto afix my signature.

CECIL E. VAN SYCKLE.

